Pages

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Mobile Greenhouse - Ready for Plants

Tuesday evening the greenhouse was deemed ready to go into
the real world, actually my backyard.I
wheeled it from the pole barn to it’s location behind the beds.It was not hard to move, although a little
awkard.It was set north of the raised
beds and faced toward the south. I leveled it some with scrap wood.It looks like a solar panel teetering at the edge of
the pond, although the shoreline is about 40 feet away.

The pond doubled in size over the weekend.Before last weekend it was at it’s lowest
level ever, about 5 feet below the overflow, thanks to the epic drought we had last summer.When it got warm for a few days the 15 inches of snow on the ground quickly melted, and
then we got 4 inches of rain to add to the runoff.In a few
days the pond rose to the overflow and probably doubled its surface area.Sure looks better.

This morning I filled up the one earthbox I have with
potting mix and planted it with lettuce. I was going to leave the earthbox in the house
until the lettuce germinated but decided to just go ahead and put it in the
greenhouse.That’s a limestone block at the front of the bench left over from last year's landscaping. It's there for thermal mass and weighs about 60 pounds. I’ll put
some more blocks in there later but they are still frozen together right now.(For those of you who don’t live in the
midwest it’s not uncommon to get huge temperature swings from day to day as weather systems from every direction push through this part of the country).The little wood box in front of the planter
holds a remote sensor so I can monitor the temperature inside.I wanted to make sure it was not exposed to
direct sun so I can get accurate readings.

It’s a partly cloudy day with the sun peaking through now
and then. At noon the temperature was
about 30 degrees F while inside the greenhouse the temperature was 55 degrees F.By 1
PM it looks like the temperature inside the greenhouse has leveled off at 60
degrees, with a little more cloud cover now.It looks like it is working, in fact I’ll have to watch out for
overheating on warmer, sunnier days.

I noticed that the earthbox walls have gotten quite warm and
that will heat up the soil inside it.It’s
going to take a few days to warm up all the stone once it is inside the
greenhouse.I’m hoping this thermal mass
will release enough heat at night to keep the water in the earthbox reservoir
from freezing.This spring I plan to put
several flats of onion seedlings in the greenhouse so they get the natural day
length.And of course it will be used as
a cold frame to harden off plants.

There’s still a few changes I plan to make when I build the
next greenhouse.It’s a little bit
tippy, although the weight of the stone inside makes it more stable.I’ll probably angle the back wall a little on
the next one to give it a little wider stance.And there’s still some issues to work out with the door props and some
other things.But it’s finished enough
to give it a real world test and I’m looking forward to getting an early crop
of lettuce.

Links

About this Blog

I moved to this place in SW Indiana in 2008. The property is six acres of woods, pasture, yard and pond. Usable garden space with full sun is limited by surrounding trees to 250 square feet of raised beds, more the size of an urban garden. I use intensive techniques: rotation of plant families, nutrient cycling, cages and trellises, row cover and cold frames to get the most out of the space.

About Me

A native Hoosier, I worked in the construction trades and later in life got a chemistry degree and worked in a research lab until retirement. I raise vegetables because they taste better and it saves money. What other hobby pays for itself? I'm a cheapskate - I won't buy new seeds until the old ones aren't any good. I'm also a bit of a lazy gardener - if I can buy the seedlings I want then why start the seeds, or if I can engineer a way to make it less work I'll do so. I also drink too much beer. But I never (well almost never) work in the garden and drink beer.